20 HEALTHY U.S. CITIZENS VOLUNTEER TO BE INJECTED WITH DEADLY EBOLA VIRUS TO TEST EXPERIMENTAL CURE

A group of healthy US adults have agreed to be injected with a single protein of the deadly Ebola virus which scientists have paired with a chimpanzee cold virus in an attempt to concoct an experimental vaccine.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and global healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline will administer test trials of the groundbreaking new vaccine next week on 20 volunteers at a clinical center in Maryland, the National Institutes of Health announced Thursday.

Researchers at the NIH facility in Bethesda will work to evaluate the vaccine’s safety and ability to generate an immune system response in the adults.

The mixture will combine a strain of Ebola from the Sudan with one from Zaire, which happens to be the same strain responsible for the current outbreak in West Africa.

A British team will then team up with the NIH in the second week of September to test the vaccine in the UK on 100 more volunteers. Tests will also take place in Gambia and Mali towards the middle of the month.

In addition, US health officials hope to eventually roll out a trial in Nigeria sometime in the future and will also test a different version of the vaccine in October on an additional 20 adults using only the Zaire strain.

The vaccine will not be a treatment for the Ebola virus, but will instead serve as a much-needed precaution. The second stage of the trial will include tests on bigger groups of volunteers before making its way to final testing.

Results will not be known until the end of the year.

“There is an urgent need for a protective Ebola vaccine, and it important to establish that a vaccine is safe and spurs the immune system to react in a way necessary to protect against infection,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

“The NIH is playing a key role in accelerating the development and testing of investigational Ebola vaccines.”

The increasing call for Ebola treatments is the highest it’s ever been since the outbreak was first reported back in March.

There have been more than 1,400 suspected and confirmed deaths from the infection in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

Fauci referred to the deadly outbreak as a “public health emergency that demands an all-hands-on-deck response” and added that it would be a key addition to already existing safety measures.

“Today we know the best way to prevent the spread of Ebola infection is through public health measures, including good infection control practices, isolation, contact tracing, quarantine, and provision of personal protective equipment,” he said.

“However, a vaccine will ultimately be an important tool in the prevention effort.”

The NIH said the investigational vaccine would be intended for health care workers who have been exposed to Ebola while treating their patients. West African residents could also become eligible in the future as well, according to Fauci.

When tested on primates, Fauci said the NIAID/GSK Ebola vaccine managed to adequately protect their immune system from the infection.

If the vaccine proves to be successful in humans, qualified patients will receive a single injection in their arm to prevent an immediate threat. They would then be given a second shot to ensure long-term protection.